Holding back the Dow today is American Express (NYSE:AXP), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 15-cent decline (-0.2%) bringing the stock to $88.16.

Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI) is trading up 86 points (+0.5%) at 17,141 as of Wednesday, Sep 24, 2014, 11:36 a.m. ET. During this time, 98.5 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 298.5 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,642 issues advancing vs. 1,275 declining with 192 unchanged.

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Holding back the Dow today is American Express (NYSE: AXP), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 15-cent decline (-0.2%) bringing the stock to $88.16. Volume for American Express currently sits at two million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 3.6 million shares.

American Express has a market cap of $93.13 billion and is part of the financial sector and financial services industry. Shares are down 2.7% year-to-date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 1.2%.

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, provides charge and credit payment card products and travel-related services to consumers and businesses worldwide. The company operates through four segments: U.S.

TheStreet Ratings rates American Express as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, notable return on equity, growth in earnings per share, increase in net income and increase in stock price during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.